Wipawee Suttipun
#1209
Ms.Laurin Werner
3rd December 2018
The Analysis of Gender Inequality In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
Gender inequality is considered to be a general problem in either past or present society.
Most people fasten on the belief that men is higher than women since the traditional or the norms
as their ancestors inherit generation to generation. Women are treated as subsidiary person in the
family while man is the leader who dictates every behaviour in the home. So, women right is
overlooked, which cause a number of negative effects and some limitation that unjustified to
them. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, published on 1959, is one of stories that show
clearly example of those actions. The book is about rise and fall of Okonkwo which including his
normally life that reflected the perspective of igbo culture in gender. Therefore, in Things fall
apart, Chinua Achebe uses ordinary action of people in society to reflect an inequality in gender.
In society, people is separated the role by gender. Women have no right to either show
their power or protect themselves thus, they are controlled by men as the norms. In Things Fall
Apart, igbo culture also believes in the thought that women are under men’s power. Moreover,
Okonkwo who has high masculinity is very strict to the norms. According to the story, Okonkwo
shows his perspective about the gender when he talks to his daughter, Ezinma, who ask for carry
a chair to the festival but, Okonkwo stops her. The author writes, ““Can I bring your chair for
you” “ No that boy’s job.” Okonkwo was specially fond of Ezinma.”(Achebe, p.44), detailing
because Ezinma is a girl, she cannot carry the chair. This clearly show the differentiation
between the roles of women and men in society as women and men have their own specifically
roles and it seems like this action is cultivated to children since they were young. In addition,
gender is considered by villagers, even crops. This is another example in the book, the author
stated “His mother and sisters worked hard enough, but they grew women’s crops, like
coco-yams, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop”(Achebe,p.22-23). this
indicates the yam, the most important crops, is considered to men that means men maintain the
highest position in the family and although how much women work hard, they cannot be
equivalent to men. These inequality are not only in the book, but also in reality. According to the
TED Talk, Ngozi talked about her experience of gender inequality in her life and one of
situations that distinctly demonstrate the separation is when she went to Lagos with her friend,
Louis. There is a energetic man who help people to park the car and she is really impress to him
so, she design to give him a tip when they want to leave. Then, Ngozi give money to this man
with her hand but, the mistake is happen, Ngozi states “And he, this man who was very grateful
and very happy, took the money from me, looked across at Louis and said, "Thank you,
sir!”(Ngozi,2012). The man think that a person who give him money is Louis who is a man even
Ngozi give the money with her hand and this implies the man perspective that men is one who
higher than women. All these evidence show that most people might judge people by gender and
mostly men is superior.
Gender builds limitation. As earlier said, men has higher position than women , thus
people considered women has less important and roles in society that make they have limitation
in some occasion in life as sometimes they cannot do same as men can do. An example can be
found on page 87, which Achebe states “It was clear from the way the crowd stood or sat that the
ceremony was for men. There were many women, but they looked on from the fringe like
outsiders.” this indicates limit of women who participate to the traditional “judicial” hearings;
however, they have to sit outsider and cannot speak as well as judge in these case even they are
displease. Therefore, this kind of example situation show people do not even care about either
female’s feeling or opinion that make she completely excluded from important practice. In
addition, many people thought that only male can be the leader that make female have no chance
to control people or can be the head. According to TED Talk, “Then, to my surprise, my teacher
said that the monitor had to be a boy. She had forgotten to make that clear earlier because she
assumed it was ... obvious.”(Ngozi, 2012), she mentioned the situation when her class chose a
class-monitor by the highest score on the test and she got highest but, she cannot be the class
monitor because only boys can be the class monitor. Furthermore, the teacher though that it
obvious from the beginning that men is leader that show teacher’s perspective as she assumed
that everyone will think same as her since it normally happen in humanity. Moreover, in Saudi
Arabia, women have no right to drive a car. According to Gender inequality in Saudi Arabia,
“Even though, women are not legally banned from driving in the country, the government does
not endow women with driver licenses and the tradition is strongly against women
drivers.”(Greenberg, 2014), this show the strong tradition of muslim people in limit of female
right even the government does not support them to drive the just because they are women.
Despite the aforementioned of gender inequality, some change also happen in the society.
Women try to bring their voice back and it seems better. Together with some people started to
appreciate female. This demonstrated by “Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried
there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme.”(Achebe,p.134) this illustrates the value of
mother and implies that when Okonkwo who was exiled from his village because he has
committed crime then he come back to his motherland; however, he can find forgiveness here as
mother is always protect him. Furthermore, the value of women is more accept as Ezinma who is
Okonkwo’s daughter and she brings his father’s honour back because of her attraction.
Consequently, he wants to choose the best man for his daughter. This is evident when the writer
states “With two beautiful grown-up daughters his return to Umuofia would attract considerable
attention. His future sons-in-law would be men of authority in the clan.”(Achebe,p.173), this
suggest that Okonkwo cares his daughter and see her value that worthy for suitable man.
Therefore, this action cross over the norms that only men can choose the women and consider
women is the properties as Okonkwo think his daughter has high value more than that. In the last
example, according to TED Talk, Ngozi told story about her grandmother who also be a feminist.
her grandmother was force to marry with a man but, she did not want to do so. Then, she ran
away from those man and ended up with a man she want. This reflected unacceptable of female
to do what they do not want. The narrator said “She refused, she protested, she spoke up
whenever she felt she was being deprived of access, of land, that sort of thing.”(Ngozi, 2012) so,
this women protected herself as much as she can and finally she released from this kind of
compulsion as she can deal with gender inequality.
In conclusion, gender is the thing that can make the changes in perspective of people to
each person just because they are male or female. Male considered to be the highest while female
is minor and under a man. In Things Fall Apart, the story illustrates discrimination by gender in
igbo culture that consistent to the real world as the story of experience from gender inequality by
Ngozi. Moreover, the limitation of the women is agreeable with gender problems in Saudi Arabia
and leader issues. Therefore, it can say that story in the book reflected truly humanity in the
world that considered to be a biggest issue in today’s society. Nevertheless, now, some people
aware of the problems and try to call woman right back as the last part of the story that Okonkwo
saw the value of women. Thus, by the time pass, the valuable of women might be more
significant and it has to develop for better humankind.
References
Achebe, C. (1959). Things Fall Apart. New York, New York: Penguin Books.
Adichie, C. N. (n.d.). Transcript of "We should all be feminists". Retrieved November 22, 2018, from
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists/transcri
pt?language=en#t-489560
Greenberg, J. (2014). Obeidallah: Saudi Arabia is the only Muslim nation where women can't
drive. Retrieved on November 22, 2018 from
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/oct/07/dean-obeidallah/obeidallah-saudi-ar
abia-only-muslim-nation-where-w/
